The present invention relates to a navigation system for a vehicle comprising an evaluation unit for capturing and conditioning vehicle data and/or topographical data, a transmission unit, which is coupled to the evaluation unit, for sending the data captured by the evaluation unit or derived therefrom to navigation systems in other vehicles, a reception unit for receiving vehicle data and/or topographical data or data derived therefrom from navigation systems in other vehicles, a processing unit which is coupled to the reception unit for the purpose of logically combining and conditioning the data provided by the navigation systems in other vehicles, and an output unit for outputting the logically combined and conditioned data, which is coupled to the processing unit.
Navigation systems are normally used to show the driver of a motor vehicle the path of travel from a starting point to a destination. In this context, the navigation system normally stores an electronic map. In addition, means are provided for the purpose of continually ascertaining the current position of the vehicle. For this, a GPS (Global Positioning System) is normally fitted in the vehicle.
To be able to react to current events during route planning, such as roadworks, congestion information, accidents etc, it is useful to provide the navigation system in the motor vehicle with such, current congestion information. This may be done by using the car radio, for example, to receive current congestion information in digitized form from a broadcast radio station and to supply it to the navigation system. In order to obtain information about the current flow of traffic, it is possible to use stationary congestion indicators. These stationary congestion indicators are mounted on motorway bridges, for example. The congestion information obtained in this manner is gathered and is input into the vehicle's navigation system. Taking economic considerations into account, stationary congestion indicators of this type will be set up only at sites which are at risk of congestion anyway or along sections of the motorway network which carry a lot of traffic, however.
The fundamental drawback of such systems is that areas with a small population or with a weak infrastructure, for example in developing countries, cannot be equipped with stationary congestion indicator networks in consideration of cost aspects.
DE-4034681-A1 discloses, in this regard, a system for transmitting traffic or operating information between vehicles, in which each vehicle records at least the speed of travel and the location of the vehicle in question and locations of other vehicles and transmits them to other passing vehicles. At the same time, the system receives information from the passing vehicles, processes it and shows the processed information on a display device.
DE-19903909-A1 describes a method for dynamically obtaining relevant traffic information and for optimizing a route for a vehicle, in which data are created and sent on the basis of the vehicle's own sensors and the data from other vehicles are received. Data from other vehicles may be requested specifically.